I remember when MTV was all music videos. Along with HBO it was the reason you paid your hard earned cash for Cable Television. Right from the start MTV was a major player in the music business making some unknown artists superstars. Unfortunately sometime in the mid 90s soon after the grunge lost it’s lead man MTV switched it format. About half the programming on the channel became shows like The Real World. When you did see an actual music video it had a decidely teen audience in mind. Today are there any music videos on MTV itself?

Considering you can see every music video ever made on YouTube you have to admit that MTVs newly launched MTVmusic.com is late to their own party. However, the site is pretty and you can leave comments, embed videos, rate videos and create your own profile.

I remember waiting up every sunday night to watch 120 Minutes with host Dave Kendall just to see the one electronic music video they would play. I think they knew it was the only reason I was tuning in as they always seemed to play the video last! As with 120 Minutes the new MTVmusic is suffering from a bit of pop-itus. What do I mean? I can find Depeche Mode and Aphex Twin but so far no Front 242 or my own biggest video (The Horrorist, One Night in NYC) which was played on heavy rotation on MTV Europe. That said, the site is brand new so I can give them time to get it right.

Post navigation

One Comment

Yep, for me the whole thing with music videos was and is marketing. It is a tool to sell the band, the album or the single. Wish there were more clever videos out there, seems it has again stagnated with Beck’s videos being one exception. It actually didn’t take long to establish a cliche MTV video format — and I’ve watched MTV since 1982 or so and gave up after six years or so.